Stomachs on legs are proud to present

This is my fridge in Thailand where only cooking I did was cooking rice (and go buy something to eat with rice) and cold noodle occasionally:


Left side:

• soy milk
• butter
• tempura crispies from Japan (brought back for a takoyaki party at my friend's)
• shelled tamarind a villager gave me
• Leo beer (giveaway from a party back in... winter, I just do not drink by myself)
• lychees,
• isotonic drink left over from my flu hospitalization last year (I never drink it except when I am sick),
• organic roselle jam,
• organic pickled plums,
• organic soy sauce,
• miso that I never cooked, and
• eye cream (so they don't go bad in the Thai heat).

Right side:

• shiso powder,
• ground organic black sesame (good with cold noodles),
• leftover isotonic drink powder,
• rustic cane sugar blocks a villager gave me,
• facial toner,
• sugarfree Mentos,
• wasabi,
• rice germ sprinkles,
• brown sugar,
• organic jasmine rice, and
• the Thai refrigerator staple: drinking water.

Right now I am sharing an apartment with two Taiwanese people in the US, so sharing the fridge as well:


Not much of the stuff is mine.

I put:

• organic soy milk,
• cage free eggs from "vegetarian-fed hens",
• butter,
  
• multi-grain English muffins,
• Cabot cheese,
• organic soy sauce,
• leftover black beans,
• organic mushroom pasta sauce,
  
• plum tomatoes,
• red onions,
• yellow Spanish onions,
• zucchinis, and
• an unopened jar of kimchi (made in New York).

I am not sure why somebody is refrigerating a box of dry pasta.

And a freezer that seems to resist frost a lot better than my Thai fridge:
Half of the bottom row is my stuff:

• frozen spinach,
• frozen peas & carrots,
• frozen sweetcorn niblets,
• frozen vegetarian dumpling, and
• frozen blueberries.

Somebody seems to believe that used brita filters work as a deodorant in the fridge and freezer. Does it work??

Hock and I are both currently living in different countries in studio apartments

Yes sad, I know. I'm currently in Bangkok though, but only for a two week conjugal visit.

But given that we are both facing the challenges of living alone and cooking in kitchenettes (two stove top elements, no oven, microwave) I thought I would begin a series on kitchenette cooking solutions

My most recent ingenious solution, if I do say so myself is pressure cooker dumplings

Take said frozen pre-purchased or pre-made dumpling from your freezer and place in a bamboo steamer



Place a cup of water and a rack inside your newly purchased pressure cooker

Place bamboo steamer on rack

Secure pressure cooker lid and place on stove top. Bring to pressure, reduce heat and cook for 15 minutes.



Turn off heat and let steam release slowly

Eat dumpling

This seriously speeds up the cooking of frozen dumplings. It also works well for sticky rice parcels, various bao and other steamable items

I haven't managed to figure out precise cooking times for different items, but I find between 15 to 20 minutes does the trick

Discovered by my sister Rachel at a local kiosk: 297 kcal of sweet ass... er, ice.

I was eating some take-away Japanese food in St James Park, London, today. It was an unseasonably warm spring day and the blossom was competing with the daffodils for the oooh factor. We bought some food from Satsuma in Wardour St and carted it merrily along to the park. We cracked open the katsu and various soy-drenched delights along with a pot of edamame beans. Now I love those salty beans as much as anyone but out of a polystrene cup, and having lost that delicious thirst-creating dryness, there were a minor disappointment. My friend mentioned that massive British frozen food supermarket Iceland (yes, we have supermarkets just for frozen food - sorry) now sells those previously specialised beans. Which must make it the new pesto.

Is this a good thing? Probably not.